


finally gettin' together

by constellations (allyoop)



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Love Confessions, M/M, Starfleet Academy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-05
Updated: 2014-02-05
Packaged: 2018-01-11 07:29:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1170349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allyoop/pseuds/constellations
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>once upon a time there was two idiots who were in love but no one wanted to say it first</p>
            </blockquote>





	finally gettin' together

Bones was pretty sure he was being punished, and for what he couldn’t really put his finger on. He’d done his penance for Jocelyn, for Joanna, for every broken heart and broken glass he left behind in Georgia. He scrubbed and scrubbed and finally, many bottles of liquor and several years later, his hands are finally clean. Not squeaky, not spotless, but a semblance of the life he once had. He could work with it, this fresh start. He could do this.

So of course, Jim Kirk, with his genius mind and propensity to misuse it was making it awfully difficult to stay on the straight and narrow, or so to speak.

"Bones, c’mon, you can’t seriously be thinking of not participating in the senior prank? It’s _tradition_.”

"Oh, I’m not saying that." Jim perked up briefly, but a Grade-A McCoy glare shut him down. "What I  _am_  saying is I’m going to tell Pike what you’re planning before this gets any worse.”

"You can’t be serious. Bones, don’t tell me your serious." He grabbed at his shoulder, making him slow down in his stride through the halls. "You wouldn’t  _dare_.”

"Jim, someone could get  _hurt_.”

"Or a bunch of someones could go down in Starfleet history as  _the most awesome_.”

Bones gave him a half-hearted eyeroll, knowing Jim well enough to know he was a stubborn little shit when he wanted to be. It took one to know one. “Since you’re obviously not going to change your mind,  _idiot_ , I’m going to go about being a real adult and pretending this conversation never happened.” He shook a finger in Jim’s face. “You told me nothing; I know  _nothing_.”

"Nothing about what Bones?" He grinned.

"Exactly."

*

"Told ya so." He was gloating, he could hear it in his voice and sense it in the warm smile he was currently beaming down onto Jim. Bones didn’t care; the kid pushed his luck, and look where it got him.

"I hate you." 

"Roll over." Jim dutifully rolled over, allowing Bones to pass the dermal regenerator across his red, blistery back. "You played with fire, Jim. Don’t be so surprised when it burns you."

"I hate you and your metaphors." He mumbled against the pillow, head still facing forward. "How was I supposed to know they’d just changed the pool cleaner composition to something that reacts so violently to jello."

"Aren’t you a genius?"

Jim just groaned something incomprehensible into the sheets.

"Didn’t quite catch that, Jim." 

"Not all the time! I’m not a genius  _all_  the time.” 

Bones laughed loudly at that, because how the hell did he end up with such a brilliant imbecile as a best friend. When he finally stopped chuckling, he poked Jim’s side to make him turn so he could check the front again.

"What even put such a fool idea in that head of yours?  _Jello,_  for godssake man, what were you thinking?”

"I read it in a book."

"A _paper_ book?"

Jim narrowed his eyes in a way that conveyed ‘is there any other kind?’

"I will never understand you, Jim. We could be on the most intelligent planet, beamed there by our most advanced technology, and the first thing you’d ask is ‘do you have a real bookstore?’"

"Oh, I’d never start with that. I _have_ taken some classes in foreign policy, you know." The kid was smiling and Bones took the chance to prod him harder than was really necessary. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Clearly you’re feelin' fine, even if you didn’t learn your lesson."

"Oh, I learned my lesson." A warning bell pinged in Bones’ head. He knew that tone of voice.

"Jim, whatever you’re thinking,  _don’t._ ”

"You know, they never did find out what happened to Admiral Archer’s prized beagle. I heard a rumor that-"

Bones stuck his fingers in his ears, feeling like a comic cliché from centuries past. “Don’t involve me in whatever you’re planning.”

"You sure Bones? We could really use your help on this one."

"No."

"But what if one of us gets hurt? You’re a doctor, isn’t it your job to keep us safe and alive?"  

"No it is  _not,_ especially if its dumbass cadets who are askin’ for it.”

"What if its me?"

Bones felt his breath stutter a bit. He couldn’t lie to himself; when Jim came hobbling in to the medbay in too much pain to even crack a joke, he had a minor panic attack. He had quickly stifled it, of course, but Jim had still caught that flash of fear and had regarded it with curiosity. Bones’ gut had twisted in that moment with the thoughts he had always locked in his mind and pretended didn’t exist: what would a world without Jim Kirk be like? What if he did become Captain like he always talked about (and of course Jim would, because he’s  _Jim_ ) and Bones wasn’t assigned on the same ship? What if he was, but wasn’t there was Jim needed him? What if Jim was hurt, broken and irreparable, and Bones was truly left with nothing in this world?

"Dammit, man. What the hell does that even mean?" Bones pulled on his armor; tough scowl and bristling words.

"Would you still heal me, even if it was my own fault?"

"Jim, you know I would. I heal, that’s what I do. I fix the things that get broken."

"Are you any good with hearts?"

He looked at Jim with a mix of exasperation and bewilderment.

"Well, you’re a surgeon with legendary hands, and the talk around the academy is that you’re top of your class in space psychology. So if I made an educated guess, you’d be pretty good with hearts."

"Jim, I have no idea what you’re jabberin’ about. Are we talking physical or metaphorical? Are you trying to tell me something?"

"Bones, I’m kind of in love with you." He searched Jim’s face for a scrap of anything familiar, but all he saw was the sort of open honesty Jim rarely showed, especially in full daylight and without a few drinks in his system.

"If this is a prank, this is the most godawful-"

He could see Jim shrink a little, and Bones wanted to punch himself in the face to stop talking.

"See? That was terrible and exactly what I thought would happen. Do you have a regenerator for hearts or something? How do you usually deal with the shattered ones?"

Jim, in his over-analyzed genius-idiot way, had just confessed his love and Bones, who was now metaphorically slapping himself, had only caught up with what had happened. His heart was screaming at his head to  _do something for godssake man do something now_.

Without a thought or a plan, Bones dropped the dermal regenerator on the side table and pulled Jim into a kiss, cupping both sides of his face and taking extra care to not brush against the newly healed skin. 

"Oh, I get it." Jim was laughing when they finally broke for air. "Your regenerator for hearts is  _your mouth_.”

"What the hell, Jim. You really have a penchant for ruining the moment."

"I dunno why your hands are the legendary ones. Pretty sure that mouth, and those lips!, are the stuff of legends."

"If you don’t shut up, I’m-"

"You’re gonna what? Kiss me again? Looking forward to it." Jim beamed at him, blue eyes seeming to actually sparkle with mirth and Bones silently cursed himself for getting attached to a reckless genius with a smile that rivaled the sun.

"Don’t be such an  _infant_. I’ll kiss you if I want to kiss you. You can’t make me.”

"But you want to."

"And what if I do?"

"What’s stopping you?"

 _Oh_.

Bones blinked at the simplicity of the question that cut right through the mess of feelings threatening to choke his breath. What  _was_  stopping him? They’d kissed. It was good; it was  _great_  actually. And the world was still spinning and nothing was on fire and Jim didn’t seem to hate him. Rather the opposite. All his fears were proven completely utterly wrong, and he had never been so happy to be mistaken. 

This wasn’t a punishment; this felt like a reward.

"Nothing, Jim. Absolutely nothing is stopping us."

 

**Author's Note:**

> When the mckirk tumblr tag gets sad, I write pure fluff.
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated!


End file.
